A tribute to the treasure trove of ecclesiastical art and architecture in the Diocese of Toledo.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

St. Patrick, Warehouse District

The clerestory windows are easy to overlook. Don't. They're well worth a stiff neck, having been salvaged from the parish's first church, built in the 1860's.The lighting fixtures date to from the 1920's.It's interesting how what I call Toledo's Great Triumvirate, the three Irish parishes, each have a very special quality in the lighting. St. Patrick's has a silvery glow, probably due to the color of the walls and the light from so many big windows. Good Shepherd has an atmosphere of absolute clarity, which accentuates every detail. Immaculate Conception has a golden glow, from the warm, buff brick and the yellow windows. Take a good look at all three ( They're well worth visiting ) and see if you don't agree.

4 comments:

Ireneus
said...

I'll accept St. Patrick's and Good Shepherd as Irish -- but unless I'm getting senile, Immaculate Conception originally was a German parish, at a time when the South end was almost solidly German, and the Irish lived up the hill on the north side of Swan Creek (towards St. Patrick's, of course). And the two did not get along at all well.

Also, (this is about a year late) "Old Darby" and his wife Joan were characters who appeared in many eighteenth and nineteenth English literary works. They represented the stolid, down-to-earth element in society. But I can't see the connection with Immaculate Conception -- maybe a blind lead.